Trump's 1st State of the Union vs. Obama's: By the numbers

When discussing anything from inauguration crowds to unemployment figures, President Trump loves to measure his presidency against that of his predecessor, Barack Obama. And comparing their first State of the Union addresses, Trump’s was shorter in words (5,190 to Obama’s 7,059) but took far longer deliver — Trump’s speech ran for 80 minutes; Obama’s 2010 speech clocked in at 66 minutes. Each included plenty of crafted applause lines: Obama paused 86 times for applause; Trump did so roughly 115 times.

In terms of thematic content, the addresses were starkly different, though Trump did borrow a key phrase from Obama’s secretary of state and Trump’s 2016 presidential opponent, Hillary Clinton.

But when processed using an online word-cloud app, Trump and Obama’s State of the Union addresses look rather similar. Lots of “America” and “American” and “people” and “country” and “Congress” and “jobs.”